Monday, April 06, 2015

E is Enjoyable Easter


E is for Enjoyable Easter and that's what I Experienced yesterday.

Some long time friends invited me out to dinner at their place.  I met them many years ago when they had a migration of nine to eleven cats to their acreage.   Later we discovered where they'd come from and later there would be more, too. The family, which included hubby, wife and two kids, did not ask much of me.  Poppa Inc. paid the bill for the spays and neuters of all those cats, something they could not afford, but they drove the cats up to be fixed to the vet I used them, up in Wilsonville, waited the day out up there, then picked them up and recuperated them at their place.  This is not the usual.

Later, the grange they manage, hosted a Neuterscooter clinic where almost 200 local cats were fixed including some we snatched from a hoarder who lived across from the grange that morning.  Myself, the son and his father ran over and stuffed as many flea anemic near dead kittens into our pockets, even my purse as we could.  She would not open the door for us but we could not do nothing.  The Neuterscooter vet cleaned them up and even got them homes at the end of the clinic.

We've kept in touch mainly at Christmas since that time.  They're a whole lot of fun to be around.   Yesterday was no exception.  Their kids are grown and on their own now but their daughter was there, with two of her friends.   And a work partner of the man of the house also was present.  He too is funny enough to be on TV, in my opinion.

The moment I arrive, Tom tells me they've got another cat showing up in the field.   E comes up with binoculars so we can check the cat out from a distance.  We don't know if it's owned or not, feral or tame.  "Let's go get one of my traps and catch him", I suggest enthusiastically.  Tom laughs, and nudges his coworker, like he had told him to expect such from me, and says, "You are totally all in, still, aren't you?"  "Of course," I say, smiling.

We laughed and laughed.  Then he pulled out three shot guns and we went to stand in the rain in the field and shoot skeet from a small contraption that slung them and was attached to an old tire.

Even though I've never shot skeet and have not shot a gun since I was young, turns out I was the best shot present and hit 9 or 10 of 11 targets.  The kick of the shotgun, whose butt end I lodged just beneath my sore shoulder on my arm, nailed me good on the 10th shot.  It's black and blue today!

I used the longest gun of the three and would wait til the clay pigeon topped out on height and then aim just below it figuring I would be a bit slow (since I'm old) and that strategy would accommodate for my "age related" slowness.  This worked well!  We had such fun.  We pretended we were high class English out in the country for a day of shooting.  Fake accents ensued.

The young people left leaving myself and my friends and his partner.  We had great time!

E is for a very enjoyable Easter.


23 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:23 AM

    Good to hear you have been out and socialising, but most of the world will never understand American gun culture, even if it just shooting clay birds. Guns are so dangerous and should never be in the hands of average citizens. I can see the average English person rolling their eyes at the shooting of launched things. That is not normal England.

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  2. Much of the world is engaged in violence with guns in one form or another. The good thing is, if you deplore our gun culture, you don't live here or even have to visit. I had fun and I enjoyed shooting the shotgun. Period. What kills here? Cars. Lots of car wrecks lately. Three deaths in two days just in our county, from cars. A 24 yr. old man died, when he lost control of his car traveling east on highway 34, just south of Albany. He slammed into a west bound car driven by an elderly Lebanon woman who was killed on impact. On Century Drive, someone hit a pedestrian in the night and drove off. An adult female turned herself in to police Saturday, likely took some time to sober up first to avoid full responsibility. Around here, violent death has two main causes: death by car or death by ex (domestic violence).

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    Replies
    1. If you found a cat in a field injured from this type of shooting activity, you'd be pretty angry about it Jody.

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    2. Every time a person drives a car, someone doesn't die. Same with shooting.

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    3. Whatever the justification for carrying/using guns in any country, whatever the disdain for those who do not live in countries where the right to bear arms is thankfully absent, I'd put money on it that you'd still be pretty angry if you found a cat in need that had been injured by a human shooting a gun, any type of gun.

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    4. There's no disdain for here for countries where people don't have so many guns. Quite the opposite.

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  3. Sounds like fun. My uncle took me shooting once, when I was a child. Guns are not common here in the UK. So it was very exciting. I held a Magnum .357 and my uncle stood behind me. The kick of the gun threw me off my feet and into my uncle.

    http://www.tdharveyauthor.com

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    Replies
    1. That's a big handgun, isn't it? I've not shot either since I was very young, so it was fun to try again!

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  4. Excellent.
    I am with Andrew though. I really don't understand the gun culture and am glad we don't have it. There are enough deaths without it.

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  5. I love shooting but never find the time. I should make it though. So much fun and a great as tress reliever.

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    1. It is a stress reliever, that is for sure!

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  6. Glad you had a good one!

    Jessica
    2015 A to Z Blogger
    Visions of Other Worlds

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  7. I have never shot skeet. We used to shoot my dad's 22 when we lived on the farm as kids. He'd line up bottles and cans. Sounds like you had a great time.

    Sunni

    http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/

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  8. Travelling through on the A to Z Challenge - just wanted to say how much I admire your resolve to neuter stray cats - this is what the Cat's Protection League here in England tries to do as well as find loving homes for unwanted cats. Special Teaching at Pempi’s Palace

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    Replies
    1. Thanks SENCO, nice to meet you!

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  9. Good to read you had a good day with friends...

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  10. What an adventure! And how remarkable that they took care of so many cats.

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    Replies
    1. And they still have and care for most of them. They have an awesome set up for the cats. And now they are feeding the butterscotch one we spotted in the field when I was there and I will be loaning them a trap to hopefully catch him soon.

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  11. Loved reading about your cat adventures! And your shooting adventures. Go you with hitting the most targets.

    As for Andrew's comment above, I wonder if he's not aware that the British have been shooting clay pigeons since the 1800s, not to mention shooting birds, game and foxes for as long as they've had firearms. For heaven's sake, it's not like you spent the weekend taking potshots at your neighbours!

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    Replies
    1. Now that sounds like fun! (the neighbor thing). Just kidding. Yes, you mention gun, or I did, innocently enough, and I may as well have killed dozens of people and animals. The guilt inflicted upon me for these horrible acts! Oh well. I've only done it once (so far).

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    2. And no one noticed that I mentioned four people were killed by cars in three days in my little area. Four people dead because of lousy drivers. Ah well.

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    3. Comparing guns and cars is like the pro-declaw brigade comparing mutilating a cat for life with neutering.

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